NEW PLACE, NEW SPACE

Here's the thing about our old apartment:

We knew it was very temporary. 

We had moved back to Madison in a hurry and started new jobs quickly, so we snatched up the first place available, that happened to be well below budget. It was enough space and was incredibly convenient for work & such, but overall we knew it never would be "home".

From our mangy-cat owning, cigarette smoking neighbor, to the constant screams of kids left unattended, to the parents swearing at their little ones, to the gigantic dogs that no one seemed to have leashes for... we soon realized we'd be out as soon as we could.

So where is the inspiration or motivation to decorate a place like that? 

There isn't.

Our new place is amazing. High ceilings, lots of space. We plan to be here and enjoy this place from the moment we move in, so I'm wasting no time putting together inspiring pictures of spaces that I'd want to live in. I really feel like the effort I put in to creating a perfect space will be appreciated here, and I can't wait to get started!

Here are some current favorites:

1. I'll actually have an office-y desk space in this place, and I love the use of IKEA cork circles in place of a large board. (image via)

2. We had a gallery wall at the old place but it wasn't overly inspiring. This time I plan to curate more carefully and add much more color! (image via)

3. Ohhhh a girl can dream that this $1,200 dresser would be hers. Le sigh.  (image via)

4. This DIY stump table is fantastic! So is the couch. (image via)

5. Will someone please give me some globes?! We have one. Consider the collection starting! (image via)

6. That pattern rug! That simple colorful art! That pop yellow lamp! All of it! (image via)

7. Oh, map wall. Someday I'll have you in my space. I'll save my pennies for you. For now, some other cool map art will have to do! (image via) 

Do you have a "home" Pinterest board? 

Share a link in the comments so I can scope out your style!

xo, lp

#movingday

we moved!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Yes, caps lock was necessary. That's how excited we are. Or well, a fraction of how excited we are. 

The place we'd been living in was just fine - just really small. Tiny closed off kitchen, no airflow, and too small to have guests over & make dinner and such. It would've been the perfect size for one person- but for the two of us an all our junk? Not so much.

So, we moved. Our new place is a GORGEOUS 2 bedroom loft. A little smaller than our apartment in Virginia (and sadly without a brick wall) - but plenty of space for the two of us and guests. I'll be sure to get pictures up as soon as we can!

Moving day was great. Last thing to get packed? All my gigantic necklaces:

We rented a UHaul and got it all done in under 2 hours, thanks to some help from a couple amazing friends. Dani & Josh helped us load & unload in 85 degree heat. True friends!

Whenever Michael and I move we ALWAYS have the first meal be some type of Asian food- so this time we got Chinese food from HyVee. Fed both of us for under $7. YES. 

We sat out on our balcony until the sun went down- perfect ending to a long day. 

 Now for the fun part:

Unpacking and organizing! I already have my eye on a bunch of great decorating ideas, which I'm starting to house on Pinterest!

Currently loving these for an accent wall, and this for a dresser.

Have any awesome decorating ideas you care to share?
If you have a great Pinterest board, share it in the comments!

xo, lp

Photo a day june

How the heck is it July? What? Seriously. 

Last month I participated in one of the many "photo a day" challenges- and while in May I kind of enjoyed being pushed to take a picture of my day, this month I really wasn't into it anymore. Kind of feel like it ended up "forcing" me to take boring pictures. I won't be doing the challenges anymore- but it is fun to look at the collage of every day put together:

In other news, 3 things made me really happy last week:

1. Meeting up  with Angela from Head to Toe Chic in Richmond the day before we left.  Her and her husband drove up from Raleigh to visit! She happens to be insanely sweet, so if for some reason you don't already follow her, go check out her blog! 

2. I got my Bauble Swap* gift from the lovely Andrea of Blonde Ambitions. It's a perfect orange and gold necklace that I may or may not have already worn. Twice. Thank you Andrea!

3. I got my Pen and Paint prints in the mail...and of course had to promptly pack them up- can't wait to be in a new place to set them up!!

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Everyone make it through the East Coast storms okay? 

The brick wall in our apartment started leaking. See Instagram for proof. Yuck.

xo, lp

In other news, if you've been following along in the past few weeks - we have officially moved out of Richmond! Yesterday we made our way to DC to see a few college friends and my cousins, and as you're reading this we're on our way to Philadelphia to see yet another college friend! If you don't already, hop on the "follow B&B" bandwagon to hear/see more about our adventure:

TWITTER   -    INSTAGRAM

(both @lpodlich)

* For more info on the Bauble Swap click below!

Table time

We have a table. 

It's funny how you take a normal human sized table for granted. Seriously. Before we got ours, we were using a table fashioned out of a cardboard box, a laundry basket, and an ironing board. Yeah. I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not. I didn't snap a picture of it before we excitedly kicked it over to make room for our real table, but I think you can get a mental picture. 

Anyway, thanks to a housewarming gift from Michael's awesome sister Kelly and her fiance Erik, we were able to run over (read: speed  drive the legal speed limit for 1.5 hours due North) to IKEA and get this beauty with 4 matching chairs:

Of course, nothing from IKEA actually comes built, so my personal builder Michael put together all the chairs and the table. The table is a really light pine, and didn't come finished- so after our IKEA trip we headed to Lowes and grabbed a can of polyurethane. We wanted to keep the table with as natural of a wood look as possible, so we went for a satin finish instead of a super glossy one.

Once Michael had finished sealing it with 4 layers or so of polyurethane, I finally got to decorate it. Of course, we're not fancy enough to actually have a table set this nice every night, but I figure once we have visitors I can impress them with my Martha Stewart wanna-be table settings.

 See those awesome napkin settings? Also a gift from the stylish Kelly!

 As for the fall themed centerpiece- you may remember the pumpkins I painted here. The leaves I picked up off the sidewalk from one of our Monument Avenue walks and just pressed them between book pages for a few days until they dried.

 So there you have it! Although now that it's all set up, I miss our ironing board/laundry basket table a little bit...

Boxing

As it turns out, when you move to a new town to a new apartment you end up with a LOT of cardboard. Our pile is currently taking up about...1/4 of our huge living room. 

Apartment. Pictures. Finally.

Everyone has been buggin' us for photos, so here are a few! The space is AMAZING. and HUGE. Some of these pictures were taken at night and some during the day (obviously) so the amount of light that pours in isn't accurately represented in some- but you all should get the picture.

So when you walk in the front door you see this- long hallway. First bedroom is that door on the right, first bathroom is just down the hall from that. Directly ahead is living room and kitchen.

First Bedroom and closet:

 Big first bathroom, picture doesn't do it justice. Directly across from the sink is the washer and dryer- I'm guessing no one cares to see a photo of that..

 Down  the hall opens up to the living room (please excuse the mess):

The windows, the glorious windows...with exposed brick and ledges for our homemade halloween decorations (more on those later):

The kitchen opens up into the living room, so everything is airy and open

The stairs in the living room lead up to the loft..

Here's a lovely shot at night of the loft/bedroom: 

  And again....

 The second bathroom!

So there you all go! Now you all have to come visit to see it in person and truly see how light and bright it is!

Balanced meals

As you all can imagine, driving across the country does not lend itself to eating healthy, fresh meals.

Before today:

Fazolis and beer

Tiny wine and lomein

veggie pad thai, BIG wine, and champagne Andre

I promise we're normally good eaters Moms and Dads! And not just some drunks like the pictures make it look like. Although, we evidently know our way around a wine or beer bottle, because sans bottle opener, Michael McGyvered this one open with a tiny flathead screwdriver:

We took a lesson from the Andre bottle on how NOT to open a bottle of champagne:

And in this last one Michael is so kindly making fun of me and my fine dining wine pouring...

More later!
xo

What a Road Trip Looks Like